Saturday, 27 April 2013

BN HAS FAILED THE SABAHANS

THIS IS a series of articles
by the N16 Luyang candidate, Hiew King Cheu, to point out why Barisan Nasional
(BN) had failed the Sabahans. The people of Malaysia have given BN more than 50
years of continuous rule.

In Sabah, there were four
governments which were in one way or another aligned to BN, the bad
administration of the Federal and State Government had resulted Sabah from
being one of the richest states to become one of the poorest states today as
reported by the World Bank. What have gone wrong?

Case 1 – Corruption

Corruption runs on top of
the list of BN failures. It is so rampant that it has become laughing matters
in BN United Malays National Organization (UMNO) national assembly.

A former UMNO veteran said
the practice of “money politics” was so prevalent that when Najib was elected
(telecast live on national television) as Umno president in 2009, he joked in
his closing speech “Inilah kita Umno dalam dilemma. Beri wang salah, tak beri
kalah.” (“We in Umno are in a dilemma. If we give out cash, we’re in the wrong,
but if we don’t give it out, we lose”).

“And everybody down there, the delegates,
started clapping and laughing because they have been receiving and those on the
stage, the Umno Supreme Council members, also clapped because they have been
giving.So it became a joking matter,
something light – a culture that has to be accepted”, recounted the UMNO
veteran. What began as handing out a few hundred Malaysian Ringgits to
grassroots members soon snowballed into millions.

Before the 13th General
Elections, the caretaker PM Najib has already announced that he will accept
independents, pro-BN politicians or members of other political parties who are
willing to jump ship – like the case of Perak in the aftermath of the 2008
political “tsunami”. Where power and authority is concerned, there is no such
thing as “gentlemen” and BN will do anything to ensure they win and rule the
country. Najib openly announced that BN would create political “road-blocks”
not police road-blocks to ensure that the opposition’s march to Putrajaya will
not be possible and BN will continue to rule.

DAP National Adviser Lim Kit
Siang once said, “I do not think any MP is serious about the ‘cancer of
corruption in our body’ politics would disagree with Tan Sri Robert Phang
(former Adviser of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission - MACC) that the sixth
conference of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities that
was held in Kuala Lumpur on October 3, 2012 would be worthwhile only if the
Malaysian delegation were to use it as an opportunity to address the
long-standing corruption allegations against the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul
Ghani Patail.”

“No reason to celebrate but
many grounds to rue over Transparency International (TI) 2012 Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th in 2011
as the least corrupt country in the world”, said Lim.

Malaysia is below average in
international rankings and scores. In 1995, under Mahathir Malaysia was at No.
23; in 2003 when Badawi took over Malaysia was at No. 37; in 2008 Malaysia was
at No. 47 towards the end of Badawi; and by 2012 under Najib Malaysia was at
No. 54. So, we have the worst performance report card under Najib’s watch! God
forbids we would fall further if Malaysians give him five more daunting years –
very scary.

How much further will we
fall if that happens? While he struts in his failure by saying I have grown a
few beautiful feathers to replace the ones I have lost, the way things are
going, he may one day say, the last time it was 100, now are now 99. Are we
going to continue to allow him to do that to the people for another 5 years? When
will the pain and suffering for the people be enough? We cannot be happy in our
suffering and we should never be. Change will only come when we decide it and
this is the time to do it.

The people have a positive
opportunity to eradicate the ‘cancer of corruption’ when we replace BN with
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and this is the time for it.. There is no two-way about it.
This has been proven in the states run by PR – Penang, Selangor, Kelantan and
Kedah. PR appeals to the people in a bid for support that “Ini kali lah –
Ubah/Tukar”. We shall march to Putrajaya and also take over the administration
of Sabah in order for the changes to take place for the development and
prosperity of the Sabah and Malaysia.